In other news, I found a gym which offers
capoeira! It’s only some 500 metres from my house here. They told me it was
R$30 (which is about $20CDN). I figured that was the drop-in price per class.
Nope, turns out that the monthly fee! According to the instructor, Capoeira
here is undervalued. Everyone wants to do the ‘American-style’ sports and workouts.
I told him, he should go teach in Canada.
My first capoeira class here was made up of
the instructor, his wife, and me. Not exactly what I was hoping for…but
nevertheless, it’s Capoeira and I’ve been itching to get back into it.
I’ve borrowed my cousin’s bike. Now the
entire city is open to me. I’m able to bike over to the best beach in the city,
lock up my bike and walk, read, write, enjoy the beach on sunny days. The
weather has been pleasant, but it’s been raining every couple of days. Still,
it’s nice enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt outside.
I’ve been reading about permaculture and
organic agriculture in general. The last book I read was ‘The Vegetarian Myth’
by Lierre Keith. It was fine until her chapter on ‘nutritional
vegetarians’…here Keith began pointing out that saturated fats and cholesterol
are good for you (and that we need more of them), that all beans and grains are
horrible for you, and that we need to eat more meat and definitely more dairy
products. And these ‘facts’ weren’t coming out of nowhere…she convincingly
points out numerous studies and cites several medical practitioners. Without
the internet to check her sources…I was starting to really question my own
vegetarianism. I started doing some research…and asking my aunt who’s a
nutritionist about some of the things Keith was saying. I didn’t know what to
believe for awhile. But I’ve decided, that Keith doesn’t know what she’s
talking about. She’s relying too heavily on one controversial source for
information. I won’t go on, read the book if you want to see what I mean. In
fact I encourage you to read it…then do your own research and tell me what you
think.
I’ve also been enjoying a few awesome
nights here with my family. Had a sushi night at my aunt’s place. My cousin Gui
just graduated from culinary school. He made some 400 delicious salmon and tuna
rolls. The next night we were out to a ‘club’…doors didn’t open till midnight
(which is a norm here). Party until the sun starts to rise. Then another night,
my cousins Allan and Paulo put together an awesome reggae/soundsystem show.
Went out to that with Gui and his friend.
The only disappointment I’ve had with these events is the ratio of guys
to girls. At the reggae event there must’ve been 15-20 guys for every one girl.
The thing is…that there really isn’t many events going on Macae…there isn’t
much of a night scene here, so I’m not sure where all the girls are. Maybe this
entire city is disproportionate. After all, Macae is like the Fort Mac of
Brazil. There are a bunch of oil companies here—oil platforms all over the
coast. In fact Macae has is having a
growth rate of about 600% (according to Wikipedia). I’m thinking one out of ten
who move to Macae are women.
Despite this growth rate, there wasn’t a
pizza place to be found at 1am last Saturday. Even the only 24hour café/bar in
the city was closed.
Alright, so that’s my update on the last
couple of weeks. I’ll try to post some pictures on the blog when I have
consistent internet at home…give you a ‘virtual tour’ of my place here.
.murph.
